Miss Bollywood

Published Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 11:00 by Natalie Anglesey

Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty first came to the attention of the British public in TV’s Big Brother and there are a couple of allusions to that in her stage debut in this musical, produced by Farhath Hussain.

Noted for staging lavish shows, Hussain’s production team consists of award-winning choreographer Ganesh Hegde, screenwriter Niranjan Iyengar, theatrical writer Michael E Ward and film costume designer Neeta Lulla. It’s a feast of visual delight in a gentle take on the East-West divide.

Looking beautiful and moving with graceful ease, Shetty leads a cast of 40 dancers who perform a plethora of visually-exciting pieces, involving 12 glamorous costume changes for the star. The choreography, danced to recorded music, captures an eclectic mix of styles, concluding with a 20-minute tribute to Bollywood’s greatest hits.

Shetty plays Maya, a classically trained dancer and choreographer in London during the build-up to the 2012 Olympics. She can certainly dance, but has admitted that she doesn’t sing, but mimes to a playback singer which, apparently, is common practice in Bollywood films.

Not so much a musical, more a dance spectacle, the only drama comes from the unwelcome advances of a predatory producer, so this is really a triumph of spectacle over substance.

But, it doesn’t pretend to be any more than an example of how cultural diversity can be demonstrated in an entertaining way and proves that dance speaks an international language understood by everyone.